When you win the Stanley Cup, you often lose a lot of players to free-agency and
have to retool. Stan Bowman appears to be great with tools, cause I don't see
why this team isn't still the bet to win the Cup again. This team still has
Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Brent Seabrook,
Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford.

2. Los Angeles Kings (Cup Contender)

This team is loaded with talent. They'll finish near the top of the conference.
Supreme goaltending; Jonathan Quick. The real key on this team is the party
boys; Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Hang out at the clubs in on Los Angeles
next playoff to find out if this team is gonna challenge for the Stanley Cup. If
Richards and Carter show up at the clubs, then they won't show up on the ice.

3. Vancouver Canucks (Cup Contender)

Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin and Roberto Luongo. I don't see this team missing the
playoffs. When Roberto starts slow this season, there's nobody to take the
reigns. He'll struggle thru the first month, then catch fire and this team will
move up to the top of the conference. Add a solid top 4 defenseman set
(Alexander Edler, Kevin Bieksa, Jason Garrison and Dan Hamhuis) and you have a
really good team.

4. San Jose Sharks (Playoff Team)

Years after year, the Sharks have one of the best teams on paper, but always
fall short in the playoffs. This might be the last year you see Joe Thornton,
Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle leading this team. They're all UFAs at season end.
All three are likely looking at pay cuts going forward unless they return to
their all-star statuses or produce in the playoffs. Not sure what else can be
said, except SAME OLD.

5. St Louis Blues (Playoff Team)

Ken Hitchcock doesn't score a lot of goals and neither does he block a lot of
shots, but the Blues' coach doesn't like missing the playoffs. I don't expect
anything different. The key to this team competing for more than a playoff spot
is Jaroslav Halak. If he returns to form and their scoring by committee
continues to work, then this team could move up. Unfortunately, their lack of
big scorers makes a Stanley Cup a pipe dream.

6. Anaheim Ducks (Playoff Team)

The Ducks look like a playoff team, but a couple key injuries could easily put
them out. They are already missing Sheldon Souray for the 1st half and their 2nd
line may require geriatric care; Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu. That said, I
don't really see this team competing for the President's Trophy or the Stanley
Cup.

7. Edmonton Oilers (Playoff Contender)

Loaded with talent at forward and defense. If they can just convince these
superstars to play a team game, then we might be looking at the next NHL
dynasty. It's really up to their top 4; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Nail
Yakupov and Jordan Eberle. They will define where this season takes them. They
could win the President's trophy or miss the playoffs.

8. Nashville Predators (Playoff Contender)

Pekka Rinne is everything for this team. He's good enough, he can steal games to
put this team in the playoffs. He's also good enough to steal some playoff
games. Outside of Shea Webber, the skaters on this team are very weak. Don't
expect a lot of goals. I wouldn't qualify any forwards on this team as NHL
quality power play material. If Rinne gets injured or struggles, this team could
be looking at a high draft pick.

9. Dallas Stars (Playoff Contender)

The forwards are mostly refabs from other teams, but the Stars have a premier
top 4 d-man lineup; Sergei Gonchar, Alex Goligoski, Stephane Robidas and Trevor
Daley. Keri Lehtonen is no all-star goalie, but he's good enough that with their
defensemen, they might be able to sneak into the playoffs.

10. Winnipeg Jets

There's enough good pieces here for this team to compete for a playoff spot.
Some good years from Blake Wheeler, Andrew Ladd and Evander Kane could actually
put them into the playoffs, but I'm guessing they'll be on the outside of the
playoffs when all is said and done.

11. Phoenix Coyotes

The Coyotes will finally have stable ownership this season, or at least we hope.
This could turn around the franchise, but it could take a few years before they
contend for anything. Mike Ribeiro and Shane Doan are quality leaders, but they
are both in their mid-30s. Their experienced defense (Keith Yandle, Zbynek
Mahalek, Rostislav Klesla {concussion} and Derek Morris) is what could save this
team. And Oliver Ekman-Larsson is an up and coming potential all-star on their
defense.

12. Minnesota Wild

Ryan Suter is a great defenseman, but they don't have too much on defense beyond
him. They are gonna need big improvement from their 2 thru 4 defensemen (Jared
Spurgeon, Keith Ballard and who) to make the playoffs. They surely aren't gonna
have a hard time scoring goals with Zach Parise, Dany Heatley, Mikko Koivu and
Jason Pominville. Might be a struggle just to make the playoffs.

13. Colorado Rockies (Lottery Team)

Upfront, the Rockies have a lot of good forwards. Unfortunately, the same cannot
be said between the pipes and on defense. The defense is led by Erik Johnson,
whom many thought would be an all-star defenseman. He's still a good d-man, but
he's no power play quarterback, nor is he a shutdown d-man. He's a good 3-4
d-man on most teams in the NHL. The rest of the Rockie defense is stop gap at
best and Semyon Varlamov and J.S. Giguere are not gonna steal many games for
this team. I suspect they'll have fall short of the playoffs once again.

14. Calgary Flames (Bad Team)

A bad start to the season could quickly degrade. Karri Ramo is an extremely good
goalie, but unproven in the NHL. If he doesn't win a few games early for the
Flames, his own performance might start to suffer, especially with the weakest
lineup in the NHL standing in front of him. Then it becomes all too possible
their 1st line (Mike Cammalleri, Matt Stajan, Lee Stempniak are all UFAs) gets
traded for prospects. Even if Ramo performs like an all-star, this team has no
chance of making the playoffs.

Here are one person's thoughts with regards to making the NHL more entertaining for him. There’s nothing in here that would be remotely appetizing to the 30 votes that matter.

Reduce the number of players dressed per game to 18. This effectively removes less skilled players.

Reduce the number of teams to 20. This effectively removes less skilled players.

Reduce the number of games played per week to 3. This effectively allows for better rested players, where games per week are currently 3.5.

Reduce the number of regular season games. I’m flexible with regards to the exact number of games. A minimum of 50 games would certainly let the cream rise to the top without bumping those quality teams that go on a 3 week swoon. The number, however, should not become so high that the outcome becomes too predictable for the majority of the teams. That just might make 70 games the maximum.

I prefer a balanced schedule, although I’m well aware that most enjoy playing local teams more often

Reduce the number of teams that qualify for the playoff to 8, with 3 7 game rounds. 5 games might be sufficient; however I can not get my mind to think of a playoff round being other than 7.

1st seed will play 8th seed, etc…

I prefer that these 8 seeds are the top 8 teams in the NHL with no preference being offered to division and conference. I am well aware that some may lose interest if no one from their region was competing in the playoffs. Perhaps my opinion is one from the east end of our continent.

I should be noted at this point that with a balanced schedule and no seeding preferences the concept of division and conference adds little to our world

No playoff round is to begin before the previous round is complete

Playoff games will be scheduled such that you are playing every 2nd day, where each team is to get at least 1 day off. This last point is important between rounds.

3 week training camp seems sufficient

Time off for Xmas, All-Star break, between regular season & playoffs, for Olympics & World Cup can easily be accommodated

No expansion to Winnipeg, Québec, Halifax. In the new 20 team NHL teams such as Edmonton & Calgary will be considered weak in many respects. Although I did intend on staying away from any reasoning of this sort.

West division

Vancouver

Calgary

Edmonton

Los Angeles

Colorado

Midwest division

Detroit

Chicago

Minnesota

Saint Louis

Dallas

Southeast division

Boston

New York Rangers

New York Islanders

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Northeast

Montréal

Ottawa

Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto 2nd

Buffalo

What undermines everyone’s effort when entertaining any conversation that puts forth anything resembling the above is the idea that you can sell it. Don’t! You can’t! It’s purely entertainment!

I must say, the Ryan Smyth situation at the trading deadline was quite a shock. Rumour is that Smyth wanted $28.5 million and the team capped at $27 million. I think this pretty much means the following video has Oscar potential. Edmonton fans should boo this guy every time he comes to town. Unless, of course, they sign him this summer ;-)

NHL: Minnesota Wild President and General Manager Doug Risebrough announced today that the National Hockey League (NHL) club has acquired Edmonton's first round pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, along with future considerations, in exchange for G Dwayne Roloson.

This January will be tough for the Leafs. A lot of games on the road and out west.

Flames @ Calgary - Fri 6 on LeafsTV

Oiler @ Edmonton - Sat 7 on CBC

Canuks @ Vancouver - Tues 10 on LeafsTV

Coyotes in Toronto - Sat 14 on CBC

Avalance @ Colorado - Tues 17 on Leafs TV

Wild @ Minnesota - Wed 18 on TSN

Senators @ Ottawa - Sat 21 on CBC

Senators @ Ottawa - Mon 23 on Sportsnet

That's a deadly schedule for both the players and fans. If the Leafs struggle in the first 6 of those games, then the Senators could easily turn this into a long losing streak with the final two in Ottawa. For the fans, 3 of the next 5 are on premium ($$$) TV. Yuck! Doesn't sound like a great January and like they say, as goes January, so goes the year.

Randy: I organized the players by their likelyhood of being selected. I placed all reasonably young players who played well on the 2004 Canada World Cup team (marked *) and complimented it with players who are obvious choices (2002 Canada Olympic team marked **). Injuries will change everything, but as it stands, either Theodore or Turco will be the 3rd goalie, one of Blake, Foote, Jovocop and Pronger will be the 7th defenceman and one of a long list of players could be the 12th and 13th forward.

TSN: TSN, which is the rightsholder for the 2005 NHL entry draft in Ottawa on July 30, will carry the lottery event. [cut] The big prize, of course, is talented youngster Sidney Crosby of the Rimouski Oceanic. [cut] Four teams (Buffalo, Columbus, the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh) have three balls in the lottery. Ten teams (Anaheim, Atlanta, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, Phoenix) have two balls in the drum. The remaining 16 teams (Boston, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, New Jersy, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington) have one.